How many times have you heard someone say to sit up straight, or pull your shoulders back? Many people complain about having bad posture, but they don’t truly understand what that means. Prolonged periods of sedentary behaviour can result in muscle discomfort, or wastage in extreme situations. But majority of the time, our posture isn’t bad, it’s the general lack of movement that creates the discomfort. Posture is not just about muscles and bones; it's a complex interplay between multiple systems in the body and our emotional, mental and gut health.

Whether it be a physical training modality such as Pilates or more treatment-based modalities such as Myotherapy, Functional Neurology or Somatic Movement Therapy, touch plays an important role in initiating, enhancing and supporting movement. Throughout this blog I aim to highlight how movement and touch intersect in the Movementality studio and how I use them as a Somatic Movement Therapist to facilitate the greatest learning and embodiment experiences for my clients.

Pain is a complicated beast. Recently, Rob posted a blog about pain, delving into the differences between pain and nociception and detailing how we work with both in the Movementality studio, from a physical and physiological perspective. As a Somatic Movement Therapist, as well as working with the physical and physiological components, I must also consider the psychological component of pain, and in particular, the relationship between emotion, pain and movement.

Having spent the last 2 years completing my Somatic Movement Therapy training, I have had the opportunity to work with some incredible clients as they bravely unpack the chronic pain or dysfunction they experience. Not all, but many of these journeys have ultimately boiled down to unresolved trauma held within their bodies. Being able to observe and hear real time feedback from these clients about what they feel, sense, imagine and kinesthetically experience, has fueled a passion in me to try and better understand what constitutes trauma. I am especially interested in how it manifests in the body and how to best guide someone through that experience so they can regain their power and confidence.

At the beginning of 2019, Ash decided she wanted actively progress her studies in movement therapy, undertaking a course called Advanced Clinical Training in Somatics and Dance Movement Therapy. Now, in 2020, on behalf of Movementality, Ash is pleased to now offer Somatic Movement Therapy (“SMT”) as a service. But what exactly is SMT? This is a question I hear frequently, so I’d like to take the time to break down the term SMT, what it means, and how my journey brought me into this incredible practice for embodied healing.